Destruction of Babu Elahi Bakhsh

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Babu Ilahi Bakhsh, a follower of the monotheist saint Abdullah Ghaznawi (1811-1881), subsequently became a follower of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839-1908) and alleged that he himself was a mulham (recipient of ilham—divine inspiration). When Ilahi Bakhsh raised a doubt that being a mulham he was not subordinate to Ghulam Ahmad, the latter wrote Darurat ul-Imam (the Need for the Imam).

Babu Ilahi Bakhsh publicly disavowed his former spiritual guide, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and began opposing him. He wrote a book, Asa-e-Musa (Staff of Moses) in which he attempted to answer Ghulam Ahmad’s Darurat ul-Imam and also published some of his alleged revelations. Babu Ilahi Bakhsh claimed on the basis of divine revelation that he was the similitude of the great prophet Moses على نبينا وعليه الصلاة والسلام and that he had been made into an Imam (Muhasibah-e-Qadiyaniat v.1; Asa-e-Musa pp.36, 83):

He also alleged that Allah had revealed the following ilham to him concerning Mirza Ghulam Ahmad:

سَنَسِمُہٗ عَلَی الۡخُرۡطُوۡمِ

We will brand him on the snout

(ibid, p.74):

Yet, Babu Ilahi Bakhsh died within Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s lifetime, on 7 April 1907, apparently from the plague. Ghulam Ahmad lived on to boast about the apparent divine sign of Babu Ilahi Bakhsh’s destruction:

کہاں ہےبابو الہی بخش صاحب مؤلّف عصاۓ موسی اکونٹنٹ لاہور؟ جس نے اپنے تئیں موسی قرار دےکر مجھے فرعون قرار دیا تھا اور میری نسبت اپنی زندگی میں ہی طاعون سے ہلاک ہونے کی پیشگوئی کی تھی اور میری تباہی کی نسبت اور بھی بہت سی پیشگوئیاں کی تھیں اخر وہ بھی میری زندگی میں ہی اپنی کتاب عصاۓ موسی پر جھوٹ اور افتری کا داغ لگا کر طاعون کی موت سے بصد حصرت مرا۔

Where is Babu Ilahi Bakhsh author of Asa-e-Musa, accountant, Lahore who declared himself Moses and myself Pharaoh and regarding me prophesied that I would die of plague within his lifetime, and many other prophecies relating to my destruction? In the end he too, in my lifetime, died of plague thereby placing a stain of falsehood and fabrication upon his book Asa-e-Musa. (Ruhani Khaza’in v.23 p.3; Chashma-e-Ma’rifat)